The Debian project secretariat can call Debian developers to vote via Article 5.2 of the Debian Constitution. The aim is to shorten the Project Leader election and to become more communicative.

The election procedure for the new Debian Project Leader (DPL) will start six weeks before the previous leader's period of office is due to end, and not nine weeks beforehand as previously. The nomination phase will just be the first week of the election period, rather than the first three. Following this, just two weeks will be allowed for canvassing instead of three. Project members will be voting on the change to the constitution between September 23 and October 6.

The draft also describes the election activities of the candidates in slightly more detail. For example, candidate will no longer be allowed to nominate themselves, but will be required to submit their plans for their potential period of office.

The Debian project drafted its first constitution late in 1998 – and assigned a version number of 1.0. The current constitution, v1.3, dates back to September 2006.